Dr. Meinig brings a most curious perspective to an expose of latent dangers
of root canal therapy - fifty years ago he was one of the founders of the
American Association of Endodontists (root canal specialists)! So he's
filled his share of root canals. And when he wasn't filling canals himself,
he was teaching the technique to dentists across the country at weekend
seminars and clinics. About two years ago, having recently retired, he
decided to read all 1174 pages of the detailed research of Dr. Weston Price,
(D.D.S). Dr. Meinig was startled and shocked. Here was valid documentation
of systemic illnesses resulting from latent infections lingering in filled
roots. He has since written a book, "Root Canal Cover-Up EXPOSED - Many
Illnesses Result", and is devoting himself to radio, TV, and personal
appearances before groups in an attempt to blow the whistle and alert the
public.

MJ Please explain what the problem is with root canal therapy.

GM First, let me note that my book is based on Dr. Weston Price's
twenty-five years of careful, impeccable research. He led a 60-man team of
researchers whose findings - suppressed until now rank right up there with
the greatest medical discoveries of all time. This is not the usual medical
story of a prolonged search for the difficult-to-find causative agent of
some devastating disease. Rather, it's the story of how a "cast of millions"
(of bacteria) become entrenched inside the structure of teeth and end up
causing the largest number of diseases ever traced to a single source.

MJ What diseases? Can you give us some examples?

GM Yes, a high percentage of chronic degenerative diseases can originate
from root filled teeth. The most frequent were heart and circulatory
diseases and he found 16 different causative agents for these. The next most
common diseases were those of the joints, arthritis and rheumatism. In third
place - but almost tied for second - were diseases of the brain and nervous
system. After that, any disease you can name might (and in some cases has)
come from root filled teeth.

Let me tell you about the research itself. Dr. Price undertook his
investigations in 1900. He continued until 1925, and published his work in
two volumes in 1923. In 1915 the National Dental Association (which changed
its name a few years later to The American Dental Association) was so
impressed with his work that they appointed Dr. Price their first Research
Director. His Advisory Board read like a Who's Who in medicine and dentistry
for that era. They represented the fields of bacteriology, pathology,
rheumatology, surgery, chemistry, and cardiology.

At one point in his writings Dr. Price made this observation: "Dr. Frank
Billings (M.D.), probably more than any other American internist, is due
credit for the early recognition of the importance of streptococcal focal
infections in systemic involvements."

What's really unfortunate here is that very valuable information was covered
up and totally buried some 70 years ago by a minority group of autocratic
doctors who just didn't believe or couldn't grasp - the focal infection
theory.

MJ What is the "focal infection" theory?

GM This states that germs from a central focal infection - such as teeth,
teeth roots, inflamed gum tissues, or maybe tonsils - metastasize to hearts,
eyes, lungs, kidneys, or other organs, glands and tissues, establishing new
areas of the same infection. Hardly theory any more, this has been proven
and demonstrated many times over. It's 100% accepted today. But it was
revolutionary thinking during World War I days, and the early 1920's!

Today, both patients and physicians have been "brain washed" to think that
infections are less serious because we now have antibiotics. Well, yes and
no. In the case of root-filled teeth, the no longer-living tooth lacks a
blood supply to its interior. So circulating antibiotics don't faze the
bacteria living there because they can't get at them.

GM Yes. No matter what material or technique is used - and this is just as
true today - the root filling shrinks minutely, perhaps microscopically.
Further and this is key - the bulk of solid appearing teeth, called the
dentin, actually consists of miles of tiny tubules. Microscopic organisms
lurking in the maze of tubules simply migrate into the interior of the tooth
and set up housekeeping. A filled root seems to be a favorite spot to start
a new colony.

One of the things that makes this difficult to understand is that large,
relatively harmless bacteria common to the mouth, change and adapt to new
conditions. They shrink in size to fit the cramped quarters and even learn
how to exist (and thrive!) on very little food. Those that need oxygen
mutate and become able to get along without it. In the process of adaptation
these formerly friendly "normal" organisms become pathogenic (capable of
producing disease) and more virulent (stronger) and they produce much more
potent toxins.

Today's bacteriologists are confirming the discoveries of the Price team of
bacteriologists. Both isolated in root canals the same strains of
streptococcus, staphylococcus and spirochetes.

MJ Is everyone who has ever had a root canal filled made ill by it?

GM No. We believe now that every root canal filling does leak and bacteria
do invade the structure. But the variable factor is the strength of the
person's immune system. Some healthy people are able to control the germs
that escape from their teeth into other areas of the body. We think this
happens because their immune system lymphocytes (white blood cells) and
other disease fighters aren't constantly compromised by other ailments. In
other words, they are able to prevent those new colonies from taking hold in
other tissues throughout the body. But over time, most people with root
filled teeth do seem to develop some kinds of systemic symptoms they didn't
have before.

MJ It's really difficult to grasp that bacteria are imbedded deep in
the structure of seemingly-hard, solid looking teeth.

GM I know. Physicians and dentists have that same problem, too. You really
have to visualize the tooth structure - all of those microscopic tubules
running through the dentin. In a healthy tooth, those tubules transport a
fluid that carries nourishment to the inside. For perspective, if the
tubules of a front single-root tooth, were stretched out on the ground
they'd stretch for three miles!

A root filled tooth no longer has any fluid circulating through it, but the
maze of tubules remains. The anaerobic bacteria that live there seem
remarkably safe from antibiotics. The bacteria can migrate out into
surrounding tissue where they can "hitch hike" to other locations in the
body via the bloodstream. The new location can be any organ or gland or
tissue, and the new colony will be the next focus of infection in a body
plagued by recurrent or chronic infections.

All of the "building up" done to try to enhance the patient's ability to
fight infections - to strengthen their immune system - is only a holding
action. Many patients won't be well until the source of infection - the root
canal tooth - is removed.

MJ I don't doubt what you're saying, but can you tell us more about
how Dr. Price could be sure that arthritis or other systemic conditions and
illnesses really originated in the teeth - or in a single tooth?

GM Yes. Many investigations start with the researcher just being curious
about something - and then being scientifically careful enough to discover
an answer, and then prove it's so, many times over. Dr. Price's first case
is very well documented. He removed an infected tooth from a woman who
suffered from severe arthritis. As soon as he finished with the patient, he
implanted the tooth beneath the skin of a healthy rabbit. Within 48 hours
the rabbit was crippled with arthritis!

Further, once the tooth was removed the patient's arthritis improved
dramatically. This clearly suggested that the presence of the infected tooth
was a causative agent for both that patient's and the rabbit's - arthritis.

[Editor's Note - Here's the story of that first patient from Dr. Meinig's
book: "(Dr. Price) had a sense that, even when (root canal therapy) appeared
successful, teeth containing root fillings remained infected. That thought
kept prying on his mind, haunting him each time a patient consulted him for
relief from some severe debilitating disease for which the medical
profession could find no answer. Then one day while treating a woman who had
been confined to a wheelchair for six years from severe arthritis, he
recalled how bacterial cultures were taken from patients who were ill and
then inoculated into animals in an effort to reproduce the disease and test
the effectiveness of drugs on the disease.

With this thought in mind, although her (root filled) tooth looked fine, he
advised this arthritic patient, to have it extracted. He told her he was
going to find out what it was about this root filled tooth that was
responsible for her suffering. "All dentists know that sometimes arthritis
and other illnesses clear up if bad teeth are extracted. However, in this
case, all of her teeth appeared in satisfactory condition and the one
containing this rootcanal filling showed no evidence or symptoms of
infection. Besides, it looked normal on x-ray pictures.

"Immediately after Dr. Price extracted the tooth he dismissed the patient
and embedded her tooth under the skin of a rabbit. In two days the rabbit
developed the same kind of crippling arthritis as the patient - and in ten
days it died.

"..The patient made a successful recovery after the tooth's removal! She
could then walk without a cane and could even do fine needlework again. That
success led Dr. Price to advise other patients, afflicted with a wide
variety of treatment defying illnesses, to have any root filled teeth out."]

In the years that followed, he repeated this procedure many hundreds of
times. He later implanted only a portion of the tooth to see if that
produced the same results. It did. He then dried the tooth, ground it into
powder and injected a tiny bit into several rabbits. Same results, this time
producing the same symptoms in multiple animals.

Dr. Price eventually grew cultures of the bacteria and injected them into
the animals. Then he went a step further. He put the solution containing the
bacteria through a filter small enough to catch the bacteria. So when he
injected the resulting liquid it was free of any infecting bacteria. Did the
test animals develop the illness? Yes. The only explanation was that the
liquid had to contain toxins from the bacteria, and the toxins were also
capable of causing disease.

Dr. Price became curious about which was the more potent infective agent,
the bacteria or the toxin. He repeated that last experiment, injecting half
the animals with the toxin-containing liquid and half of them with the
bacteria from the filter. Both groups became ill, but the group injected
with the toxins got sicker and died sooner than the bacteria injected
animals.

MJ That's amazing. Did the rabbits always develop the same disease the
patient had?

GM Mostly, yes. If the patient had heart disease the rabbit got heart
disease. If the patient had kidney disease the rabbit got kidney disease,
and so on. Only occasionally did a rabbit develop a different disease - and
then the pathology would be quite similar, in a different location.

MJ If extraction proves necessary for anyone reading this, do you want
to summarize what's special about the extraction technique?

GM Just pulling the tooth is not enough when removal proves necessary. Dr.
Price found bacteria in the tissues and bone just adjacent to the tooth's
root. So we now recommend slow-speed drilling with a burr, to remove one
millimeter of the entire bony socket. The purpose is to remove the
periodontal ligament (which is always infected with toxins produced by
streptococcus bacteria living in the dentin tubules) and the first
millimeter of bone that lines the socket (which is usually infected).

There's a whole protocol involved, including irrigating with sterile saline
to assure removal of the contaminated bone chips, and treating the socket to
stimulate and encourage infection-free healing. I describe the procedure in
detail, step by step, in my book [pages 185 and 186].

MJ Perhaps we should back up and talk about oral health - to PREVENT
needing an extraction. Caries or inflamed gums seem much more common than
root canals. Do they pose any threat?

GM Yes, they absolutely do. But let me point out that we can't talk about
oral health apart from total health. The problem is that patients and
dentists alike haven't come around to seeing that dental caries reflect
systemic - meaning "whole body" - illness. Dentists have learned to restore
teeth so expertly that both they and their patients have come to regard
tooth decay as a trivial matter. It isn't.

Small cavities too often become big cavities. Big cavities too often lead to
further destruction and the eventual need for root canal treatment.

MJ Then talk to us about prevention.

GM The only scientific way to prevent tooth decay is through diet and
nutrition. Dr. Ralph Steinman did some outstanding, landmark research at
Loma Linda University. He injected a glucose solution into mice - into their
bodies, so the glucose didn't even touch their teeth. Then he observed the
teeth for any changes. What he found was truly astonishing. The glucose
reversed the normal flow of fluid in the dentin tubules, resulting in all of
the test animals developing severe tooth decay! Dr. Steinman demonstrated
dramatically what I said a minute ago: Dental caries reflect systemic
illness.

Let's take a closer look to see how this might happen. Once a tooth gets
infected and the cavity gets into the nerve and blood vessels, bacteria find
their way into those tiny tubules of the dentin. Then no matter what we do
by way of treatment, we're never going to completely eradicate the bacteria
hiding in the miles of tubules. In time the bacteria can migrate through
lateral canals into the surrounding bony socket that supports the tooth. Now
the host not only has a cavity in a tooth, plus an underlying infection of
supporting tissue to deal with, but the bacteria also exude potent systemic
toxins. These toxins circulate throughout the body triggering activity by
the immune system - and probably causing the host to feel less well. This
host response can vary from just dragging around and feeling less energetic,
to overt illness - of almost any kind. Certainly, such a person will be more
vulnerable to whatever "bugs" are going around, because his/her body is
already under constant challenge and the immune system continues to be
"turned on" by either the infective agent or its toxins - or both.

MJ What a fascinating concept. Can you tell us more about the
protective nutrition you mentioned?

GM Yes. Dr. Price traveled all over the world doing his research on
primitive peoples who still lived in their native ways. He found fourteen
cultural pockets scattered all over the globe where the natives had no
access to "civilization" - and ate no refined foods.

Dr. Price studied their diets carefully. He found they varied greatly, but
the one thing they had in common was that they ate whole, unrefined foods.
With absolutely no access to tooth brushes, floss, fluoridated water or
tooth paste, the primitive peoples studied were almost 100% free of tooth
decay. Further - and not unrelated - they were also almost 100% free of all
the degenerative diseases we suffer - problems with the heart, lungs,
kidneys, liver, joints, skin (allergies), and the whole gamut of illnesses
that plague Mankind. No one food proved to be magic as a preventive food. I
believe we can thrive best by eating a wide variety of whole foods.

MJ Amazing. So by "diet and nutrition" for oral (and total) health you
meant eating a pretty basic diet of whole foods?

GM Exactly. And no sugar or white flour. These are (and always have been)
the first culprits. Tragically, when the primitives were introduced to sugar
and white flour their superior level of health deteriorated rapidly. This
has been demonstrated time and again. During the last sixty or more years we
have added in increasing amounts, highly refined and fabricated cereals and
boxed mixes of all kinds, soft drinks, refined vegetable oils and a whole
host of other foodless "foods". It is also during those same years that we
as a nation have installed more and more root canal fillings - and
degenerative diseases have become rampant. I believe - and Dr. Price
certainly proved to my satisfaction - that these simultaneous factors are
NOT coincidences.

MJ I certainly understand what you are saying. But I'm still a little
shocked to talk with a dentist who doesn't stress oral hygiene.

GM Well, I'm not against oral hygiene. Of course, hygiene practices are
preventive, and help minimize the destructive effect of our "civilized",
refined diet. But the real issue is still diet. The natives Dr. Price
tracked down and studied weren't free of cavities, inflamed gums, and
degenerative diseases because they had better tooth brushes!

It's so easy to lose sight of the significance of what Dr. Price discovered.
We tend to sweep it under the rug - we'd actually prefer to hear that if we
would just brush better, longer, or more often, we too could be free of
dental problems.

Certainly, part of the purpose of my book is to stimulate dental research
into finding a way to sterilize dentin tubules. Only then can dentists
really learn to save teeth for a lifetime. But the bottom line remains: A
primitive diet of whole unrefined foods is the only thing that has been
found to actually prevent both tooth decay and degenerative diseases.

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